A Meeting With Death
by NavySailor
Summary: What happens in a meeting with death? One team member is about to find out...


Rossi looked at Death as it gazed back at him in kind.

"You're early," Death finally said. There was no malice or judgment but a sense of curiosity as to why it was he was so early.

"I couldn't let her die," was his only response.

"You should have. It was her time," Death told him.

"No, no it wasn't. She had so much life ahead of her," Dave sighed sadly.

"So did you."

"Not as long. And certainly not as important," Rossi said as he sat on the bench nearby. They were in a very clean looking park with not a soul in sight besides Rossi and Death.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Death replied a bit mysteriously.

"I never thought I'd end up here," he said running his fingers through his hair.

"Everyone ends up here," Death stated.

"I would do it all again you know."

"I know you would. In your eyes her life was more valuable than your own," Death said as it too sat on the bench. "Do you miss her?"

"All the time."

"You don't remember what happened," Death said. It wasn't a question, no one remembered their own death, that's just how it was in the Afterlife. Granted they weren't in the Afterlife yet but in the place he met all new spirits.

"No, I don't," Dave responded in the affirmative.

"But you remember why you died," Death stated.

Dave just nodded his head as he leaned back and stared across the park.

"You all were at a festival," Death told him feeling that this one spirit, this one very early spirit deserved to know how he died.

"What for?"

"Fun," Death told him.

_It was the weekend of the Jazz festival in D.C. and the entire team had decided to go after the case in L.A. was wrapped up. It was supposed to be a night of fun, good food, and great music but that's not how it turned out. Emily, Spencer and Dave were walking over to get some food when something caught Dave's eye. Light from the sun reflected off a handgun cleverly hidden in the pants of a man not far away. At first Rossi just froze trying to gauge what exactly the guy was up to. He watched the man turn and look directly at Emily and Spence a few feet away from Rossi paying no attention to the older man. That's when Dave noticed the gun in his hand and his sights set on Emily. In a split second Rossi was charging at her tackling her full force to the ground but not before a shot went off. There was a burning sensation in his side as he struggled to breath, his lungs feeling like the wind was knocked out of them. _

"_Dave!" Emily shouted in panic as she pushed his body off her and got up to look at him. She knelt beside him a look of horror and panic set across her beautiful face. Her hands clumsily pressed into his side as blood seeped through her fingers and onto the asphalt below him._

"_Em," he choked out as blood filled his lungs dripping from his mouth as he coughed. The bullet had nicked a lung and now he was drowning in his own blood, the ambulance sirens sounding so far away._

"_No, you save your breath, okay? Dave you're gonna be okay," she told him desperately as Spencer talked quickly on the phone with someone behind her._

_His vision was starting to get fuzzy as he stared at her and then looked around at the crowd of people look on in horror and fascination. Some were recording it and others were on the phone but no one tried to help and that hurt his heart._

"_Dave," Emily said sharply trying to get his attention when his eyes began to close._

_He looked at her taking a shallow and hard breath wanting nothing more than to wipe the tears off her face._

"_Emily!" the team called as they pushed through the crowd but her eyes never left his as he took his last breath. The life draining out of his expressive brown eyes as he stared now unblinkingly at her. She cried right then as she clutched at his bloody shirt and bowed her head resting it on his chest._

"Why did he do it?" Dave asked of the gunman.

"Revenge for putting his brother away. He figured Emily would be the easiest target and went after her. He didn't expect you to intervene and your team caught him a few blocks away," Death explained.

"How is she?" Dave wondered.

"Hurt and full of guilt over your death," it explained.

Dave immediately felt terrible for causing Emily pain but he still knew he wouldn't change a thing. She deserved a long and happy life while he had lived most of his already. He was at peace with the thought of death and had been for a long time.

"Can I see her?" he asked Death tentatively.

"For you I'll make an exception just this once," Death agreed and with a snap of its fingers Rossi was in Emily's apartment.

"Em," Dave whispered to the still form on the couch. He approached with care and knelt down beside her. Clutched in her hands was a picture of him, one she had taken out in L.A. a month ago. Rossi almost forgot how fluid time was in the Afterlife but it didn't change the ache in his heart that she was hurting still.

The picture of him she had to beg him to take because he had originally wanted nothing to do with it. It was simple really just a photo of him in his tan shirt, black pants and Italian leather boots smiling in front of the Hollywood sign. His face was unshaven as his beard started to grow in again, his hair wild and untamed a stark contrast to the neatness of his clothes. A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes in the bright L.A. sun but his happiness could be seen in his smile. It was his favorite picture taken just two days before he died and she was clinging to it like her life depended on it.

"Dave why did you do it?" she asked the seemingly empty room as tears rolled down her face. "You should have let me die it would have been so much easier."

"Oh Em, we both know I could never have done that," Dave whispered to her knowing she couldn't hear him anyway.

"Why'd you have to go?" she asked now sobbing into the pillow under her head.

"Em if I could've stayed and kept you safe as well I would've in a heart beat but I couldn't and you deserve a long happy life," he tried explaining even though she didn't know he was even there.

He watched painfully as she cried and in a second he was back at the park with Death once more.

"Will she be okay?" he asked Death.

"Eventually she'll move on but that's years from now," Death told him as they walked towards the park gate side by side.

"And the rest of the team?"

"It'll take less time but they too will eventually move on," Death told him as they stopped and Rossi turned to him.

"What now?" he asked seriously.

"Well that's up to you David," Death told him with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"You can go back to earth and live another life perhaps help more people or you can leave and go to the Afterlife," Death explained.

"Is my son there?" Rossi asked considering his options.

"Ready and waiting for you to come home," Death informed him with a grin.

"I'm ready to move on," Rossi told Death with a sigh.

Death placed a gentle hand on Dave's shoulder and with that they slowly made their way through the gate and into the future. Rossi was finally at peace with not just Death but the world and the unknown. One day he'd hopefully see Emily and the rest of the team again but until then he was content with moving on and heading to where he belonged.


End file.
